| abstract |
A surgical implant for securing ligament grafts into a joint. The implant is formed entirely of allograft cortical bone, and has a tapered tip with a suture eye. A length of suture is knotted or looped through the eye. The suture is used to draw the implant transversely through a looped graft construct to fix the graft by spanning a bone socket, for example. In a preferred embodiment, the implant is used for knee ligament repair by forming a longitudinal socket in a bone. A flexible strand is drawn with the pin through the bone. A looped portion of the flexible strand is diverted so as to protrude out of the entrance to the longitudinal socket. The ends of the flexible strand remain accessible on either side of the bone. The ligament graft is captured within the strand loop protruding from the entrance to the socket. The strand is retracted into the socket, drawing the graft into the socket by pulling on the accessible ends of the flexible strand. The graft is fixed in the socket using the transverse implant. |